Anchorage for poles



Dec. 9, 1930. L. D. BALE 1,784,568

ANCHORAGE FOR POLES "Filed April 26, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet l Jnucwi'or,

5 Zia/relive D Bale TYH \Z, AM

a 61mm Dec. 9, 1930.

L. D. BALE ANCHORAGE FOR POLES Filed April 26, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 gwuento'z 4 L all/mime 3 19010 Patented Dec. 9, 1930 S AT PA ENT LAWRENQE D. BALE, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, AS SIGNOR TO- UNION METAL MANUFAC- TUBING COMPANY,.OF CANTON, OI-IIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO ANCHORAGE EOR"POLES Application filed April 26,

The invention relates to anchorages, foundations or footings for metal poles which are used as posts, columns, or lighting standards, or as telephone, telegraph, transmission, distribution, or trolley wire suspension poles or the like; and it relates more particularly to a type of anchorage, foundation or footing which is located underground, which is imbedded in concrete, and to which the standard or pole may be firmly or positively secured.

Tubular poles ofthis character are coming into extended use, more particularly in the larger cities, not only for lighting the city streets at night, but also for supporting telephone, telegraph, transmission, distribution and trolley wires, and for other purposes. These poles are not necessarily used for only one of such purposes, but one pole may carry lighting fixtures, telephone, telegraph, transmission and distribution cross bars, and trolley wire suspension means. 7

Thus the length or height ofsuch a pole may be forty or more feet, so that the pole will have sufhcient strength to withstand the loadings and strains imposed upon it, and consequently the weight of the pole is often times very great.

. The weight of the pole, and the loading and strains imposed thereon, are transmittedto and carrled by the anchorage, foundation,

footing or underground base which must be of proper design and suflicient size to withstand the loading, and to transmit the strains imposed upon the pole to the ground, without displacement of the pole or anchorage.

In the past, the underground anchorage or foundation has usually consisted of a concrete block, rectangular or circular in cross sec- 49 tion, having a depth of six or more feet and having atce-rtam points a diameter or max1- mum dimension in cross sectlon of three to five feet. A. plurality of anchor rods are imbedded in the concrete block which proj ect'from the top thereof, and a flange at the lower end of the pole is attached to the projecting ends of such anchor rods. 1

The dimensions of the present j type of foundation must be such that its size, weight,

50 and strength prevent the load transmitted to lmust be replaced.

1929; Serial No. 358,279.

setting one of the above usual types of foundatio'ns, gas mains, water mains, sewers and Wire tunnels I are often encountered.

In manyof'our cities adequate records are not on file giving the location of such gas mains, water mains, sewers and wire tunnels so that after an excavation has been made it may be found that there is only ten or twelve .inches horizontally between such mains or tunnels rather than the three to five feet required for the pole foundation. 1

For these reasons the installation of the anchorages for the poles is often times extremely costly and maynecessitate a realignment of the whole pole system, or an elaborate and costly special design of anchorage, or a relocationof'the interfering mains or tunnels. Moreover, such usual foundations have anchor rod ends-projecting upward therefrom above the surface of the sidewalk, which necessit'ates'the use of barricades, watchmen and danger signals to prevent injuries to passers-by In most cases the poles are erected and owned by utility companies, thus furnishing an e'asy mark for unscrupulous persons who intently mgure themselves on the barricades or projecting anchor rods for the express purpose of filing damage suits against the utility companies to collect damages for m urIessustalned; J

dead weight of the founc i '55 ,The cost'of setting such anchorages or '60 sidewalks of city streets at spaced intervals" adjacent the-curb. Thus in excavating for Furthermore, sidewalks on modern streets are usually paved with slabs of concrete marked of? in five foot squares, and city ordinances provide, if any part ofsuch a square is injured or damaged, that the whole square Thus when anordinary underground conc rete block foundation is provided for such poles, many times the excavation for the foundation injures or undermines two or more squares which causes an added cost of replacement to be reckoned into the cost of the foundation. p a

And finally, because of the damage suit hazard, utility companies only put in foundations at the present time when the poles are immediately thereafter to be .mounted' thereon. Thus, the utility companies are unable to anticipate future settings of poles by setting pole anchorages at a time when streets or sidewalks are being constructed, repaired, or re-pa-ved, or when bridges are'being built,

which time the cost of placing the foundai'ons would be materially less than after- V wards.

An object of the present invention is therefore to provide an underground anchorage mains, gas mains, sewers or wire tunnels;

for a pole which may be extended into the ground below a sidewalk substantially without regard to the location of existing water an anchorage which presents a flush surface with the ground and an anchorage which costs materially less than the type of foundations now in use.

A further objectof the invention is to provide an anchorage which may be buried in the ground at the site of a proposed location of a pole in anticipation of placing a'rpole on the site at some future time, without presenting ground.

a hazard to passers-byv V V A further object of the present invention is to provide an anchorage, the connection between such anchorage and a pole secured thereon being removable when damaged without tearing up. .theanchorage from the i And finally, it is an object of the present invention to provide an anchorage in which the loads transmitted to it from the pole are carried entirely by the anchorage and not by the concrete surrounding the same the concrete acting merely as a means of increasing the anchorage bearing surface.

--concrete does not need to be of as high a grade as is necessary in the present type of foundation, and the concrete mayeven be poured in freezing weather without taking precautions to prevent freezing thereof.

These and other objects may be attained by use of an anchorage construction herein- 1 V afterset forth in detail, and which may be stated 111 general terms to include an anchor- I ing stub, a flange or flanges located ad acent one endofsaid stub, the stub and flange being buried underground and preferably surrounded by concrete and presenting a flush surface with the top of the ground, and means for attaching a pole to the anchorage, the greatest cross sectional dlmens on of the anchoring stub be ng less than the greatest cross sectional dimension of the pole anchored thereby.

Thus the A preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which V Figure 1 is a side elevationof a pole attached to the new and improved anchorage shown inposition in the ground, parts of a sidewalk, curb, street and sundry pipes being shown in cross section as on the line 11,

Fig. 3;

Fig. 2, an elevation of the pole, showing the ground in cross section as on the line 22, v

Fig. 3, a fragmentary plan view of a sidewalk, curb andfstreet showing apole in cross section as on the line 3- .3, Figs. 1 and 2 Fig. 4, a side elevation of the improved anchorage;

Fig. 5, an. end elevation of the improved 10 .need not necessarily be that of an H-bcain,

but may be any standard shape'orshapes. However, anH-beain is preferable since the outside dimensions thereof in cross section V are substantially tl at of a square so that for a given strength, the maximum cross sectional dimension is a minimum; At one end' portion ofthe stub 10 there is attached, preferably by welding as at 11 and 12, a flange member or members 13. which are shown as being standard channel shapes.

hen the flange member 13 at the top of the stub 10 is a channel shape as shown in the drawings, there may be providcd betweenthe flanges thereof'a plurality of spaced tubularlengths or strut members 1a which may be welded to the flanges of the channel member .13 as at 15. V

The central bore 16 of the tubular length 1% may be aligned with suitable holes 17 in the flanges of the channel members 1?), and the holes 17 and central bore 16 may be threaded as'shown in dotted lines at 18 in...

Fig. Stud bolts 19-inay be screwed into the lower end of the threaded bore 18 for preventing the bore from becoming filled with concretewhen the anchorage im- .-bedded in concrete and for tying the flanges.

of the channel member to the tubular length. The position of the ground line when the anchora e is imbedded in the ground is shown Figs. 4 and 5 and it is seen that the anchorage has substantially flush surface with the round.

Y 1,784,56 y it Figs. 1 and 2 show a pole 21 firmly secured to the anchorage A by stud bolts 22 which pass through holes 23a in a flange member 23 provided at the lower end of the pole and engage in the threaded bores 18 of the tubular sections l l.

The pole 21, the extent of the length of which is not shown, is shown as carrying a street sign 24, trolley wire suspension means 25 and cross bars 26 which may be provided with insulators 27 for suspending telephone, telegraph, transmission or distribution wires 28.

Fig. 1) shows that the base 23 of the pole 21 is secured to the anchorage A by bolts 22 at four different places. For this reason, the relative location of the holes 17 in the flange members must be the same as the relative lofor example six feet when the pole 2l has a 7 maximum diameter D of thirteen inches and a length or height of forty or more feet. In such a case the external side cross sectional dimensions X and Y of the H-beam stub 10 are approximately eight inches. i The H-beam stub 10 is shown as positioned between a gas main 29 and a water main 30 on one side, and a sewer pipe 31 on the other side thereof.

in setting the anchorage in the ground, it is required to excavate a hole 32 therein having a diameter substantially equal to the diameter of the pole base 23, which may be under the-present example, approximately twenty inches. The anchorage is then located in position between any existing gasmains, water mains or sewers 29, 30and 31, and concrete 33 is filled in the hole 32 around the anchorage.

Shields 34 are provided usually partially surrounding the gas mains, water mains or sewers for preventing the same from being permanently imbcdded in concrete which would materially hamper the subsequent removal of the same.

Thus a pole anchorage may be set in the ground at the desired position when sidewalks 35, curbs 36 and street paving 37 is being provided or renewed, and the anchorage will be flush with the surface of the sidewalk as shown in Figs. 1 and 2; and to which may be readily attached at any time the pole 21 simply by placing the base 23 on the anchor age and drawing up four bolts 22.

Since the diameter of the excavated hole is relatively small and entirely covered by the pole base, it will he rarely necessary to replace a slab or more than one slab a of the sidewalk 35 in setting an anchorage after the sidewall: has already been laid, as well shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings.

Moreover, the controlling dimension of the block anchorbolt foundation now in-use.

"anchorage is aside dimension X orY of the anchoring stub 10- which under the present example is eight inches, and the anchorage may therefore be set in the ground'at any place without changing or removing gas- The, cost of making and erecting or setting an anchorage such as dlsclosed herein is never "more than twenty-five dollars as compared with the cost of present types of foundations for sinnlarpoles above set forth, so that many more polesof the type described may be used by cities or utility companies than are at present in use.

oneof the poles, the bolts 22 would fail in tension and the'same may be readily renewed simply. by drilling out the severedbolt ends from the threaded bores" 18, rethreading the bores, and screwing in new bolts 22. An accident to the pole would therefore necessitate the expenditure only of a smallsum of money to correct the damage sustained.

Under the present form of concrete block and anchor bolt construction, should a mov-' ing object strike the pole, one or more of the anchor bolts would fail in tension and in order to repair the same the whole concrete block must be removedand a new foundation constructed which would cost substantially.- L

the same'as the original foundation.

Fig. 7 shows a modified form of anchorage generally indicated at AA and may consist of the anchoring stub which may be tu-. bular; man one end portion there is attached, preferably by welding .as at 101,v a cast flange member 102.

A pole indicated by dotted lines at 103 may be attached to the flange member as by the stud bolts shown in dotted lines at 104 en gaging in threaded bores 1 05 of the flange member.

In the claims appended hereto, the ward pole is understood to mean a pole, column, shaft, standard, or post, or any member or.

structure for which the anchorage is pro vided. c 4 I I claim:

1. An anchorage for a pole and the like including an anchoring stub, channel members attached to the upper end of said stub, tubular sections extending between the flanges of said channel members, the tubular sections providing means for connectionwith pole attaching means, and anycross sectional Moreover, should a moving object strike 2 dimension offsaid stub being less than the greatest cross sectional dimension of the pole attached thereto.

2. An anchorage for a pole and the like including an anchoring stub, channel members attached to the upper end of said stub, tubular sections extending between the flanges of said channel members, andthe tubular sections providing means for connection with pole attaching means. v

3. An anchorage for a. pole and the like including an anchoring stub, channel members attached to the upper end of said stub, strutmembers extending between and connected with the flanges of said channel members, and said strut members providing means for connection with pole attaching means.

4. An anchorage for a pole and the like including a longitudinally extending anchoring stub, channel members attached tothe upper end of saidstub, and strut members located substantially parallel with the longitudinal axis of the stub extending between and engaging both flanges of said channel members providing means for connection with pole attaching means.

In testimony that I claim the above, Ihave hereuntosubscribed my name.

LAWRENCE n. BAL 1 CERTIFICATE OF GORRECTION.

Patent No. 1,784,568. Granted December 9, 1930, to

LAWRENCE D. BALE.

It is hereby certified that the assignee in the above numbered patent was erroneously described and specified as "Union Metal Manufacturing Company", whereas said assignee should have been described and specified as The Union Metal Manufacturing Company, as shown by the records of assignments in this office; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 13th day of January, A. D. 1931.

M. J. Moore, (Seal) Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

